explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure Flashcards
What is retrieval failure
An explanation for forgetting based on the idea that the issue relates to being able to retrieve a memory that is there (available) but not accessible.Occurs due to the absence of cues. Retrieval depends on using cues.
The encoding specificity principle
Tulving and Thomson: proposed that memory is most effective if information that was present at encoding is also available at the time of retrieval.
The encoding specificity principle further states that a cue doesn’t have to be exactly right but the closer the cue is to the original item, the more useful it will be.
Tulving and Pearlstone:
In the free recall condition 40% of words were recalled on average, whereas in the cued-recall condition participants recalled 60% of the words.
Research was evidence that cues that have been explicitly or implicitly encoded at the time of learning and have a meaningful link to the learning material.
There is another type of cue which is not related to the learning material in any meaningful way. Whenever any information is learned, we also often remember where we were (environmental context) or how we felt (the emotional state at the time).
what is context-dependent forgetting
Can occur if the environmental cues that were present when learning took place are absent when the info has to be recalled
Context-dependent forgetting research
Godden and Baddeley
Aim: investigated the effect of contextual cues.
Procedure: Scuba divers were given lists of words to learn either on land or underwater.
Subsequently, they were tested either on land or underwater, so there were again four experimental conditions.
Results: The results again showed that highest recall occurred when the initial context matched the recall environment
Conclusion: show that the context acted as a cue to recall as the participants recalled more words when they learnt and recalled the words in the same environmet than when they learnt and recalled the words in different environments
What is state-dependent forgetting
when the emotional state we are in when we learned the info is not present when we have to recall
State-dependent forgetting research
Goodwin
Asked male volunteers to remember a list of words when they were either drunk or sober.
The participants were asked to recall the lists after 24 hours when some were sober but others had to get drunk again
Results: More errors were made on day 2 in the Intoxicated, Sober and the SI conditions. The SS performed best in all tasks.
Conclusion: Supports the state-dependent memory theory as the performance was the best in the participants who were sober or intoxicated on both days
AO3: retrieval failure
str: research support
str: RWA
lim: limited explanation
lim: correlation not cause
Retrieval failure str: research support
Lots of research evidence had shown importance of retrieval cues on memory
Such research includes lab, field and natural experiments as well as anecdotal evidence.
Eg: Tulving and Pearlstone in a lab experiment power of retrieval clues
Eg: Abernethy demonstrated the importance of context-dependent learning among a group of students studying a course.
Because much of the evidence has relevance to everyday memory experiences, the evidence has high ecological validity.
Retrieval failure str: RWA
An obvious application of this research is to use it to improve recall when you need to, for example when you are taking exams.
Abernethy’s research suggests that you ought to revise in the room where you will be taking the exams.
Smith showed that just thinking of the room where you did the original learning (mental reinstatement) was as effective as actually being in the same room at the time of retrieval.
This shows how research into retrieval failure can suggest strategies for improving recall in real-world situations, such as taking exams or giving eyewitness testimony.
Retrieval failure lim: limited explanation
Retrieval cues dont always work
The issue is that the information you are learning is related to a lot more than just the cues.
In most of the research on context effects, participants learn word lists but when you are learning, for example, about Milgram’s research into obedience, you are learning about complex associations that are less easily triggered by single cues.
Outshining hypothesis: A cues effectiveness is reduced by the presence of better cues.
This suggests that while the use of retrieval cues can explain instances of everyday forgetting, they don’t explain
Retrieval failure lim: correlation not cause
A limitation is that the relationship between encoding cues and later retrieval is a correlation rather than a cause.
Nairne: myth of the encoding-retrieval match
Baddeley: made a similar criticism, pointing out that the encoding specificity principle is impossible to test because it is circular.
If a stimulus leads to the retrieval of a memory then it must have been encoded in memory. If it does not lead to retrieval of a memory then, according to the encoding specificity principle, it can’t have been encoded in memory. But it is impossible to test for an item that hasn’t been encoded in memory, so this cannot be proved.
According to this criticism, therefore, the cues do not cause retrieval, they are just associated with retrieval.
